Dabombs 1986 Trans Am "The Other Project" - TKO 600 Install

[dabomb6608]

Figured I would start a thread of my car seeing as I will be away from working on the truck for a bit while I work on getting the new transmission installed.

Short history of the car...
I bought this 1986 Trans Am in September of 2010. I bought it as a project car. No motor/stripped interior and piss poor body. Looking back it wasn't a good buy. But I was 17 and not the brightest.

Here is the day I brought her home.

Can even see my Jimmy in the first pic!

Long story short, I had just started dating a girl at the time and ended up not doing anything to the car (or anything else) for the next year basically....wasted my whole senior year with her.... anyways.....

So got rid of her, and there began me still not having any money.

Pulled the 400 SBC with TPI out of my dads wasted away 79' Blazer and got me a wiring harness to convert into the car since it wasn't an original TPI car. Painted the engine compartment before any of that was done.

Got the motor in and running. Then proceeded to blow the motor. (Problem was Detonation) Not once....but twice....in like 5 months time. Say it with me brothers I WANTED A PROJECT CAR.

Here is one of the pistons that had not even 200 miles on it.....



Got all my issues squared away and ran it the way it was for a while. This was Spring 2012? Stock motor bored 30 over with a unknown "RV" cam, stock heads, stock TPI intake. Learned the ropes of tuning with the EBL Flash software along the way.

Then came body work/paint. Started on that Fall of 2012. Was my first dive into body/paint other then the paint in the engine compartment. Finished the paint Nov. 2012. Turned out surprisingly well all things considered.





Drove it that winter and then April 2013 I was driving back to the college after lunch and a black undercover Police Impala decided to make a left turn right in front of me when they were in the opposite lane. T-Boned the crap out of it. Surprisingly it didn't do much damage at all to my car. Mostly passenger fender damage. Thankfully because the front nose of the car was a brand new NOS piece when I painted the dang thing!

Fought with the insurance for the next couple months. Them trying to say it was previous damage. Threatened to take it to court and ended up getting the money. Since the damage wasn't bad I didn't replace the fender or anything. Just popped the fender dent back out and left it as is. Can still see where the paint chipped and 2 kinks but that is it.

Next up was doing the Cam/Head/Intake swap. I worked on gathering my parts up until fall 2013 to do the swap. Went with a pair of Edelbrock Performer RPM heads. A Comp Cams XFI 280 Flat Tappet cam. And a F.I.R.S.T. intake from F.F.I.

Some pictures of the install. Here is a link to a video of the exhaust. It has Dyno Don 1 3/4" shorty headers on it with the Y-Pipe for them. Then it goes into a SLP Loudmouth II exhaust system from a 4th gen car. Sounds mean as heck.

http://vid975.photobucket.com/albums/ae234/dabomb6608/IMG_02121.mp4

Drove it without many changes after that until this past summer. I ended up installing AC in it. Which followed with me installing a 2-Speed Taurus Fan to keep the temps down when the AC kicked on.

Then I thought it smart to take a trip to the drag strip. First time ever doing that....found out pretty quickly that I need more traction AND that the stock clutch that I had installed in it when I first put the car together wasn't going to last much longer. Considering it was the clutch that I learned to drive stick on I was shocked it lasted as long behind that motor.

So I installed this.







Spec Stage 3+ Clutch with a freshly surfaced Centerforce Flywheel part # CTF-700102. Figured that would hold up.

Drove it till about November when we moved again about 20mins from town. Parked it and put down a deposit for the TKO 600 from a member over on Thirdgen.org. Once tax time came I got it paid off and last week it arrived along with the Lakewood Bellhousing, Spohn Crossmember, adapter for the transmission to bellhousing, and misc. install parts.

So thats the story! Hope I didn't miss anything.

Once all this snow melts off I plan to get the Jimmy out of the garage and the Trans Am in so I can do the swap. I'm going to go ahead and pull the motor out while I am at it. It has had a leak that I simply have not been able to track down. So I will be resealing the motor and then fixing a couple exhaust leaks as well.

 

[Rugger187]

Very nice ride you have yourself.

 

[dabomb6608]

Thanks! It's been a long time coming and a heck of a learning experience!

 

[82355]

Details on that intake?

Martin

 

[dabomb6608]

Details on that intake?

Martin

Its basically a larger version of the original TPI intake. Made by a company called First Fuel Injection. It is a completely custom intake with non of the stock pieces being interchangeable. It uses a large monoblade throttle body as opposed to the dual blade throttle bodies found stock.​

https://www.firstfuelinjection.com/ Here is their site.

This intake has been around for several years when it was made by a different company. I guess it never got a lot of advertisement and due to it being expensive just never took off. Anyone I have seen that uses it gave nothing but good reviews.

I would give it the same good reviews, this thing pulls like a mad man. Even with a Cam that has a advertised range of 2400-6400 it still has plenty of torque down low in the rpm range. Then once it hits about 2000 rpm it just goes all out. I would love to get it on a dyno after I get the new transmission in. There is a place about 30mins away that has a chassis dyno. Wasn't crazy expensive to get a few runs to be able to tune on it.

Quick question for the masses. I have noticed a drop in my oil pressure over the past year or so. Nothing severe, but it isn't coming up to where I would like it to when I'm getting on it. I am thinking of going ahead, while I have the oil pan off to put a new rear main seal in it, and replacing my main bearings and rod bearings. Maybe even the oil pump. Definitely
wouldn't hurt I don't think. And I "Might as Well"TM

 

[82355]

Never seen that before. When I quit playing with Camaros, the Holley Stealth Ram, or swapping to a modified LT1 intake was the thing to do.

It's neat, but seems pricey. I assume you got yours used?

Martin

 

[dabomb6608]

Never seen that before. When I quit playing with Camaros, the Holley Stealth Ram, or swapping to a modified LT1 intake was the thing to do.

It's neat, but seems pricey. I assume you got yours used?

Martin

Yeah, I got it used. Got a good deal on it from what I remember. I have kind of tried to forget how much I spend on things for the car or truck for that matter...keeps me sane.

The Holley Stealth Ram is still one of the go-to swaps as well as the Miniram (LT1 style). I have even considered getting one of the two myself just to see what this motor is fully capable of in the higher rpms. But can't justify it because this motor is pretty peppy as is. Plus I LOVE the look of a TPI intake. One of the sexiest factory intakes I have seen.

I would love to eventually swap in a LS motor. But don't plan to do that until I need a rebuild on the current motor. After the transmission the next big upgrade will be a Ford 9" but that will be at least another year.

 

[82355]

Oh I agree, the TPI intake is the coolest looking intake of all time.

Martin

 

[Bowtie85]

Got a tko600 in my 67 Beaumont, love it. Best money I ever spent on the car hands down.

 

[dabomb6608]

Got a tko600 in my 67 Beaumont, love it. Best money I ever spent on the car hands down.

Good to hear, I was originally planning a T56. But being able to use the clutch/flywheel that I just dropped coin on this past summer was a major factor in doing the TKO. Plus, the fact its a beefy as heck trans.

 

[1BEATK5]

I'm planning a tko600 for my volvo. Great trans for the money. Same price or cheaper than swapping in a t56. I wish they made it in a few more ratios though.

 

[dabomb6608]

Yeah, that would be nice. My T5 transmission has 1st-2.95 2nd-1.94 3rd-1.34 4th-1.0 5th-.63 R-2.76

New transmission will have 1st-2.87 2nd-1.89 3rd-1.28 4th-1.0 5th-.64 R-2.56

I am pretty happy currently I think with my ratios and it won't be changing them very much at all in the swap so I think I will be happy with it. Although 1st gear is useless....

 

[Rugger187]

I recently (very loose sense of the word) put a 9" in my 65 Bel Air. 31 spline, 3.90's with a Detroit locker, disc brakes, and a hydroboost. Thing hooks up now and stops better than anything else I own.
I'm also going to put a 9" in my 78 2wd blazer. Good rear end. I also have a bare 9" housing with big bearings just sitting there waiting for a home.

 

[Rugger187]

I absolutely loved my T56 in my 2001 WS-6. Makes me want to drop one with a supercharged LS motor in my 71 Datsun 240Z. But then again, i have too many projects that need to get done first.

 

[dabomb6608]

I absolutely loved my T56 in my 2001 WS-6. Makes me want to drop one with a supercharged LS motor in my 71 Datsun 240Z. But then again, i have too many projects that need to get done first.

Yeah the 9" is a stout rear end. Should give me the peace of mind I have always been without when I am ripping on that car. First it was the thought of my trans exploding. But that will be solved when the TKO gets installed. Now I will be worried about the rear end more...its the last weak link along with the drive shaft.

 

[dabomb6608]

The Trans Am might be waiting a bit longer to get the TKO installed now. Read my Jimmy Build thread in the driveway for details...

Maybe once my dad gets his Sable back on the road and out of the garage I can fit the Trans Am in there as well as the truck. Two projects at once to be able to work on. Just what I need!

 

[dabomb6608]

Its Time!

Well it took longer then I thought to get around to doing this swap. But I finally got the top on the truck and pulled out of the garage Then brought the Trans Am inside (after one last burnout with the old transmission). Got started on it Tuesday night. Not very many pictures since I decided to ruin my iPhone over the weekend. But new screen is on the way for the iPhone and will have more pics hopefully by the weekend. I did take a few with my old phone just cause I know an update is worthless without any pictures.

I am pulling the motor to reseal it due to several oil leaks. I am also going to go ahead and put new main/rod bearings in it while it is out. Just to freshen it up a bit. Oil pressure was slightly down from when it was fresh.

This is how far I got last night.







Then this is as of tonight. Transmission is about 8 bolts from being ready to be dropped. And then the motor needs a few things finished up to pull it. Going to check compression before I pull it on all my cylinders just for peace of mind. If I come up with anything startling I will pull the heads. If all is good then they are staying torqued.





It should be out by this weekend hopefully. Got a date night tomorrow and family coming in this weekend so I will have to work around that. Need to purchase everything in my cart from summit and on eghey. About $500 dollars worth of stuff as it sits now.

One thing I am going to do while the harness is out is give it the same treatment I gave the TPI harness in my truck. This one was thrown in and never really gone through to remove plugs and wires I wasn't using. Now it will be a much cleaner install just like the trucks harness was.

 

[dabomb6608]

Motor and transmission are out. Tonight I will start tearing into the bearings on the crank and rods. Going to check them for wear and check some tolerances before I order the new bearings. Then I will start working on the wiring harness to clean it up.